Guide rail for rolling doors



- May 30, 1944. N. MICHELMAN GUIDE RAIL FOR ROLLING DOORS Filed Sept. 4. 1943 Patented May 30, 1944 UNITED STATES PAT ENT OFFICE 8 Claims.

This invention generally relates to rolling doors for industrial purposes, or the like, of the type comprising a series of metal sections or slats interconnected for relative hinged movement to form a flexible door adapted to be wound about a drum located at the head of the doorway, and is more particularly directed to the means for guiding the door during its travel.

In rolling door constructions of this character, there are usually provided fixed vertical guideways or'tracks extending upwardly to a point in proximity of the drum and suitably located for guiding the marginal portions of the slats during the upward or downward movement of these latter, caused by the rolling or unrolling of the door, and for maintaining the door, when lowered, in a fixed vertical position. For proper operation of the door, the vertical tracks are given such a width as to allow of the ready sliding of the slats therein, without however any excessive play, and the location of the drum relative to the tracks is such that the door, when lowered, extends from the drum through the tracks to the bottom of the doorway in a vertical plane, or, in other wards, lies substantially in a vertical plane tangent to the cylindrical surface of the drum.

When the door is being raised, the winding oft-he door about the-drum, whereby the door sections are progressively superimposed upon the drum and upon-each other, has the effect of a gradual increase in the diameter of the drum which gradually urges the dooraway from the axis of the "drum in a direction perpendicular to the vertical planein which the door previously lay, "and asthis movement takes place concurr'ently with the upward-movement of the door,

this latter is urged to deviate from said vertical plane and to follow a path at an angle therewith. Invers'ely, the-unwinding of the doerresults in a gradual decrease in diameter of the to reach its maximum inthe-region of the upper edge of the side wall, and gradually decreases during the' downward; motion. *Althoughthis pressure is not sufilcientto prevent operation of the door, as the increase in' the diameter of til the drum is comparatively small, it is nevertheless such as to cause considerable friction between the contacting surfaces of the travelling door sections and thewalls of the tracks, thereby rendering the operation of the door difficult and subjecting. the door sections and the tracks to excessive strain and wear.

The elimination of this very objectionable friction would be, obviously, very advantageous, but cannot be accomplished with the conventional arrangements of fixed tracks without incurring other and still more serious shortcomings. It is therefore the general object of the invention to provide guide means for rolling doors of the character described whereby any objectionable friction of the contacting surfaces and consequent wear of the various parts may be eliminated, and the operation of the door facilitated without unduly complicating the construction or increasing the cost of installation of the mechanism.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide guide means for rolling doors that, while capable of maintaining the door, when lowered, in a vertical plane, will allow the door sections to follow a path diverging from said plane during at least part of their travel in an upward or downward direction following the raising or lowering of the door.

It is a further important object of the invention to provide guide means of, the aforementioned character embodyingswingable terminal track elements adapted to accommodate the travelling door sections during the winding or unwinding of the door and to. yield tothe thrusts exerted thereon by the sections, to yieldably guide the same during their upward or downward movement, thereby eliminating any objectionable friction between the contacting surfaces.

.These and other objects wfll'become more apparentin the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawing, wherein'z' v Figure'l' is'a rear elevation showing the general arrangement fat the various parts of a rolling door construction embodying tracks according to the'invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view on line 2-4 of Figure '1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged horizontal sectional view on line 33 of Figure'l. I

Figure 4 is a verticalview, on 'afgreater scale, on line 4 4 of'Figure'S.

Figure 5 is an enlarged elevational view of one of the pair of tracksprovided accord-ing'to the invention, which comprise a flxed vertical lower section and a swingable upper section, the figure showing in dotted lines the position assumed by the swingable section when the door is completely wound about the drum, the angle formed by the swingable section with the fixed section being somewhat exaggerated for the purpose of illustration.

Figure 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Figure 5.

Figure 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of one of the sections or slats forming the flexible door, showing the hinge connectionof each side edge of the slat with adjacent slats.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, where in like characters of reference indicate similar parts in the various views, numeral Ill denotes a flexible door composed of a series of metal sections or slats ll interconnected for relative hinged movement and adapted to be rolled upon a rotatable drum l2, suitably secured to the head of the doorway and actuated by means of a conventional mechanism. Tracks l3, having a base or web l4 and a substantially U-shaped portion or channel l5, wherein the marginal portions of the slats slide, are suitably secured to the opposite side walls of thedoorway. Each of the tracks comprises a fixed vertical section 13a, extending to the bottom of the doorway, and a movable upper section I31) extending upwardly to a point in the neighborhood of drum [2, this latter section being pivoted, as shown at 16, for swinging movement, in a plane perpendicular to the vertical plane passing through theaxis of the fixed sections, during the upward and downward movement of the door, as will 'later become apparent. The upper end of section Ba and the lower end of section I3b are slightly spaced from each other, as shown at H, and the latter is provided with cut-out l8, in its base portion M, to allow of the free movement of section l3b about its pivot l6, as shown-in Figure 5.

A stud I9' embedded in the side wall of the doorway, projects therefrom through a slot in base portion M of swingable track section I3b, to cooperate withpivot IS in securing said section to the side wall of the doorway and in guiding it in its swinging movement.

{The location of the drum relative to the tracks is similar to that previously described with reference to conventional rolling door con structionsjandthereforethe door,in its lowermost position, extends from the drum through the tracks in'a substantially vertical plane tangent to the'cylindricalsurface of the drum, so that both the fixed and the'movable sections of the tracks are located in a vertical plane when the door is lowered.

As it will be readily understood, during the winding of'the door about the drum, (due to the rotation ofj'this latter in the direction of the arrow, as shown in Figure 2) and the consequent upward movement of theidoior, track section's 13b, being pivoted at l6 as shown,'do not oppose the thrust exerted by the travelling door slats, that are urged to progressively deviate from. the aforementioned. vertical plane along a path at anang'le thereto for the'reas'o'ns hereinbefore set forth, but yield to this thrust progressively swingingabout their pivot, thereby permitting the slats to slide therein .without any objectionable friction between the contacting surfac s. un l t e or r ac esi s up e m t s tion to which. there corresponds theposition of maximum displacement of the swingable track sections, shown in Figure 5.

Inversely, during its downward movement, the door is gradually urged to return to the vertical plane in which it initially lay owing to the gradual unwinding of the slats and consequent gradual decrease in diameter of the drum, and track sections l3b are accordingly gradually led back, by the travelling sections of the door, to their initial position so that no objectionable friction develops during the lowering of the door.

Since track sections l3b extend upwardly in the direction of drum l2 further than the highest point normally reached by the lower end of the door, as can be seen in Figure 5, said sections are maintained in constant engagement with a portion of the door, and therefore no means need be provided for controlling their swinging movement in either direction.

The length of the swingable track sections may vary within relatively broad limits. I prefer, however, to use swingable sections having approximately one-eighth to one-fifth of the'length of the fixed sections, as I have found that this ratio leads to most satisfactory results that cannot be attained otherwise owing to the intervention of other factors that adversely influence operation of the door.

While I have described and illustrated in the drawing a preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that many changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a rolling door construction, in combination, a drum, a pair of tracks, a plurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through said tracks in a vertical plane, and adapted to be wound about said drum. to cause the door to move in an upward direction, the winding of said slats about the drum concurrently determining a gradual increase in the diameter of the drum whereby the unwound portion of the door, during its upward movement, is gradually moved away from the surface of the drum to follow a path at an angle with said vertical plane, said tracks being movable to a position substantially along the path whichthe door isurged to follow. 2. In a rolling door construction, in combination, a drum, a pair of tracks, aplurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from saiddrum through said tracks in a vertical plane, and adapted to be wound about said druinto cause the door to move in an upward direction, the winding of said slats about the drum concurrently determining a gradual increase in the diameter of the drum whereby the unwound portion of the door, during its upward movement, is gradually moved away from the surface of the drum to follow a path at an angle. with said; vertical plane, "said tracks being'movable, during. the travel of the door, .to a position substantially along the path which the door is urgedtofollow. I I v3. In; a rolling door construction, in combination, a drum, a pair oftracks, 'aplurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through'said tracks in a vertical plane, and adapted to be woundabout said drum to cause the door to inove in an up ward direction, the winding of said slats about the drum concurrently determining a'gradual increase in the 'diameter' of the drum whereby the unwound portion of the door, during its upward movement, is gradually moved away from the surface of the drum to follow a path at an angle with said vertical plane, said tracks comprising sections capable of moving, during the travel of the door, to a position substantially along the path which the door is urged to follow.

4. In a rolling door construction, in combination, a drum, a pair of tracks comprising pivotally mounted sections, a plurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through said tracks in a vertical plane, and adapted to be wound about the drum to cause the door to move in an upward direction, the gradual superposition of the slats upon the drum concurrently moving the upwardly moving door away from the surface of the drum to follow a path along a plane gradually diverging from the aforementioned vertical plane, the pivotally mounted sections of the tracks being movable to a position substantially along the path which the door is normally urged to follow to guide the travelling door along said path.

5. In a rolling door construction, a, drum, a pair of tracks, a plurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through said tracks in a vertical plane, was adapted to be wound about said drum, the winding of said slats about the drum determining a continuous upward movement of the door and a concurrent gradual increase in the diameter of the drum whereby the door, during its upward movement, is gradually moved away from the surface of the drum in a direction perpendicular to said vertical plane, to follow a, path at an angle thereto, said tracks being mounted for movement in planes perpendicular to the aforementioned vertical plane to maintain the door substantially in said path during its travel.

6. In a rolling door construction, a drum, a pair of tracks, a plurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through said tracks in a vertical plane,

and adapted to be wound about said drum, thewinding of said slats about the drum determining a continuing upward movement of the door and a concurrent gradual increase in the diameter of the drum whereby the door, during its upward movement, is gradually moved away from the surface of the drum in a direction perpendicular to said vertical plane, to follow a path at an angle thereto, said tracks comprising sections pivotally mounted for movement in planes perpendicular to the aforementioned vertical plane to maintain the dOOr substantially in said path during its travel.

7. In a rolling door construction, in combination, drum, a pair of tracks comprising fixed vertical sections and movable sections pivoted for rotation in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the fixed vertical sections, a plurality of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door extending from said drum through said vertical track sections and adapted to be wound about said drum to cause a continuing movement of said door through said tracks in an upward direction, the gradual super-position of said slats upon said drum concurrently gradually moving the door away from the surfac of the drum in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the fixed vertical track sections to exert a gradual increasing thrust against the pivoted track sections, these latter being consequently progressively caused to rotate about their pivot thereby causing the door to travel therein.

8. In a rolling door construction, a drum, a pair of tracks, a series of slats hingedly interconnected to form a flexible door, said door being movable between a lowermost position in which its extends downwardly from the drum through the tracks in a vertical plane and an uppermost position in which it is wound about the drum, the gradual superposition of the slats upon the drum during the winding of the door causing this latter to move upwardly, concurrently gradually moving the door away from the surface of the drum whereby the door is urged, during its upward movement, to follow a path progressively diverging from said vertical plane, and the unwinding of the slats causing the door to move downwardly, concurrently gradually urging the same toward the surface of the drum whereby the door, during its downward movement, is caused to follow a path converging toward said vertical plane, the tracks being swingably mounted to prevent the door from diverging from said path during its movement between its lowermost and uppermost positions.

NATHAN MICHELMAN. 

